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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3200 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

and time-consuming tasks the Government was going to have in bringing forward all those recommendations at the one time, I was not unhappy with her taking selected elements of the legislation and bringing them forward to this place. Ms Follett, when she was here, took a similar approach with legislation regarding stalking, and the Government also supported that legislation as a way of bringing forward more quickly than otherwise would be the case elements of the package which were urgent and would benefit, especially, women in those circumstances.

No-one, of course, has a monopoly on developing policy on issues such as domestic violence, and this Government does not purport to have one. It is important, though, that those who seek to implement policy by way of legislation do consider the impact and the value of the policy and consult with those who will have the responsibility of implementing the policy, to make sure it can be done in a workable way. There are a very large number of ACT government agencies that have responsibility in this area; not merely the Federal Police but a number of funded non-government agencies, people in Health, in community services and in other areas. The Government has done this formal consultation prior to forming its position on the recommendations.

The Government is also acutely aware of other developments taking place in relation to the development of model domestic violence legislation as part of the process leading up to the domestic violence summit later this year. It may be that any model developed for consideration by the States and Territories will lead to further review of our legislation, notwithstanding the already extensive efforts by the CLRC in this regard. As experience suggests that the development of model legislation can be a very long process, the Government will not be delaying implementation of the CLRC's recommendations pending that model Bill being available. We will, therefore, be bringing forward legislation to implement those of the committee's recommendations with which we agree and which have not been implemented in the meantime by Ms Tucker's Bill. Mr Speaker, the Government commends Ms Tucker's Bill to the Assembly.

MR MOORE (11.41): Mr Speaker, whenever we deal with domestic violence, the Domestic Violence Act and amendments to it, my mind gets drawn back to a particular public meeting I attended some time ago with the Lone Fathers Association and other associations. In fact, it was prior to the last election. I was asked the question then, "Will you make moves to ensure that fathers who are disadvantaged by this legislation will be able to be protected by the legislation, because there are some situations in this area of conflict where the more vulnerable parent, for some reason or other, is the male?".

My reply at the time, and it still stands, was that, if there was a way that I could find to protect males who are disadvantaged by this sort of legislation - usually it is males; sometimes it is women - I would be supportive of it. But I have not found a way, nor has anybody presented me with a way, nor were the 150 or 200 people who were at that public meeting able to present me with a way of dealing with that. Therefore, I drew the conclusion that what we have to do with our legislation is to take whatever action is necessary to protect the most vulnerable in this situation; and the most vulnerable in this situation, in 95 per cent of the cases, are women and children.

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